Steven Spielberg has committed to making the Bradley Cooper vehicle "American Sniper" his next movie.

The project, which was written by Jason Hall ("Paranoia"), will be a co-production between Warner Bros. and Dreamworks.

Film is based on the bestselling book "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History" by Chris Kyle, Scott McEwan and Jim DeFelice.

Book chronicles Kyle's journey from Texas rodeo cowboy to Navy SEAL Chief with the highest number of sniper kills in U.S. military history. Cooper's production company optioned the rights to the book a year ago. He fast tracked it after Kyle was shot and killed on Feb. 2 at a shooting range in Erath County, Texas.

The suspect is Eddie Ray Routh, a veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Kyle had reportedly taken Routh to the range to help with his PTSD.

Spielberg and Cooper will produce with Andrew Lazar and Peter Morgan. DreamWorks' Kristie Macosko Krieger and Adam Somner will also be involved in a producing capacity.

Sheroum Kim will oversee the project on behalf of Cooper's production company, 22nd & Indiana Pictures.

Jon Berg will oversee the project for WB.

Spielberg originally intended to direct "Robopocalypse" as his follow-up to "Lincoln," but that film was pushed back in January.

Cooper recently exited the troubled "Jane Got a Gun" project.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

Steven Spielberg Predicts 'Implosion' of Film IndustryGeorge Lucas echoed Spielberg's sentiments at an event touting the opening of a new USC School of Cinematic Arts building, saying big changes are in store.Source: Hollywood Reporter

Steven Spielberg on Wednesday predicted an "implosion" in the film industry is inevitable, whereby a half dozen or so $250 million movies flop at the box office and alter the industry forever. What comes next -- or even before then -- will be price variances at movie theaters, where "you're gonna have to pay $25 for the next Iron Man, you're probably only going to have to pay $7 to see Lincoln." He also said that Lincoln came "this close" to being an HBO movie instead of a theatrical release.

George Lucas agreed that massive changes are afoot, including film exhibition morphing somewhat into a Broadway play model, whereby fewer movies are released, they stay in theaters for a year and ticket prices are much higher. His prediction prompted Spielberg to recall that his 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial stayed in theaters for a year and four months.

The two legendary filmmakers, along with CNBC anchor Julia Boorstin and Microsoft president of interactive entertainment business Don Mattrick, were speaking at the University of Southern California as part of the festivities surrounding the official opening of the Interactive Media Building, three stories high and part of the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Lucas and Spielberg told USC students that they are learning about the industry at an extraordinary time of upheaval, where even proven talents find it difficult to get movies into theaters. Some ideas from young filmmakers "are too fringe-y for the movies," Spielberg said. "That's the big danger, and there's eventually going to be an implosion — or a big meltdown. There's going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen megabudget movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that's going to change the paradigm."

Lucas lamented the high cost of marketing movies and the urge to make them for the masses while ignoring niche audiences. He called cable television "much more adventurous" than film nowadays.

"I think eventually the Lincolns will go away and they're going to be on television," Lucas said. "As mine almost was," Spielberg interjected. "This close -- ask HBO -- this close."

"We're talking Lincoln and Red Tails -- we barely got them into theaters. You're talking about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can't get their movie into a theater," Lucas said. "I got more people into Lincoln than you got into Red Tails," Spielberg joked.

Spielberg added that he had to co-own his own studio in order to get Lincoln into theaters."The pathway to get into theaters is really getting smaller and smaller," Lucas said.

Mattrick and Spielberg also praised Netflix, prompting Boorstin to ask Spielberg if he planned to make original content for the Internet streamer. "I have nothing to announce," said the director.

Lucas and Spielberg also spoke of vast differences between filmmaking and video games because the latter hasn't been able to tell stories and make consumers care about the characters. Which isn't to say the two worlds aren't connected. Spielberg, in fact, has teamed with Microsoft to make a "TV" show for Xbox 360 based on the game Halo and he is making a movie based on the Electronic Arts game Need for Speed.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

Uh, Need for Speed is filming in my town as we speak. In what capacity is Spielberg involved? I see no mention of him on imdb.

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We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

Lucas and Spielberg on storytelling in games: 'it's not going to be Shakespeare'By Brian Bishop13 June 2013via The Verge

“The second you get the controller something turns off in the heart.”

With titles like Quantum Break and the upcoming Halo series, the convergence of gaming and narrative storytelling has become an intense focal point — but the men behind Indiana Jones and Star Wars think gaming will never be able to provide the same type of rich experience traditional storytelling does.

Speaking Wednesday at a panel at the University of Southern California — joined by Microsoft’s Don Mattrick — George Lucas and Steven Spielberg argued that introducing the concept of interactivity fundamentally changes the experience. "They’re always going to be different," Lucas said when asked if movies and games were going to become more similar. "They’re never going to be the same."

"Storytelling is about two things," he said. "It’s about character and plot." Character is what movies and television offer, he said, but it’s a concept the gaming industry is just now discovering. "Like sports. It’s about Tebow. It’s about, you know, Kobe. They’re starting to realize that if they focus on the characters it makes the game much richer."

"But by its very nature there cannot be a plot in a game. You can’t plot out a football game. You can’t plot out feeding Christians to lions. It’s not a plot."

It’s a nuanced argument that moves away from the tired conversation about whether games are art or not — one largely started by the late Roger Ebert — and towards the definition of narrative storytelling itself. Games are trying to eke out some sort of middle ground that combines overarching narrative with agency on the part of the player, but for Lucas true storytelling comes in one very specific form.

"Telling a story, it’s a very complicated process," he said. "You’re leading the audience along. You are showing them things. Giving them insights. It’s a very complicated construct and very carefully put together. If you just let everybody go in and do whatever they want then it’s not a story anymore. It’s simply a game." The dismissive pushback is slightly awkward, particularly since LucasArts titles like The Secret of Monkey Island were once known for their ability to tell a story that players invested in while still maintaining the playability of an adventure game.

"And so you just have to make the divide between games and stories," the Star Wars director said. "The big deal is that videogames are going to have more character… But you’re not going to have a plot that says, you know… it’s not going to be Shakespeare."

Spielberg has his own past with gaming, including The Dig — a mid-90s LucasArts adventure — as well as LMNO, an Electronic Arts collaboration that failed to materialize. The aim of the latter project was to bring a real emotional experience to gamers, something the filmmaker still has on his mind.

"I think the key divide between interactive media and the narrative media that we do is the difficulty in opening up an empathic pathway between the gamer and the character — as differentiated from the audience and the characters in a movie or a television show," Spielberg said. Describing the divide as a "great abyss", he pointed to the function of game playing itself as part of the problem.

He described an early game in which players rescued babies being thrown from a burning building — likely a reference to Bouncing Babies or some variant thereof. "That idea came from an urge of a gamer to say, ‘Let’s create an empathic experience for a player to save babies.’ Who’s more helpless than a baby thrown into the air, heading for the ground? You gotta catch the baby," he said.

"But as players started to play the game they stopped looking at the baby as a human being and they started looking at the baby as a score… So they were looking at the numbers they were racking up, and the baby became parenthetical to the calculation in scoring more points than your friends and being able to brag about it at school the next day."

Even games with elaborate cutscenes and interstitials face the problem, he said. "You watch, and you get kind of involved with what the story is, and you hate the bad guy because he murders people in an airport and stuff like that, and then all of a sudden it’s time to take the controller," Spielberg said. "And the second you get the controller something turns off in the heart. And it becomes a sport."

Lucas added that the gaming industry itself has been complicit in the problem as it has catered to hardcore gamers out of economic concerns. "Hardcore gamers basically love to watch the baby hit the floor," Lucas said. "They said ‘I want a game where I can shoot somebody in the head and blow their head off,’ so the gaming industry moved in that direction. So that’s what they’re doing. And you can’t empathize with somebody you’re going to kill, so that whole idea has gone out the window."

Neither man thought the problem was unsolvable. In fact, Lucas thinks the biggest success in gaming over the coming years will be a game playing against the current trends. "I think ultimately the big game of the next five years will be a game where you empathize very strongly with the characters, and it’s aimed at women and girls. Because they like empathetic games," he said. The statement perpetuates a particularly prevalent stereotype, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that there is a vast market out there that is not being served by the current generation of AAA titles and gaming devices. Mattrick himself said as much, predicting that consoles will soon move beyond the current global install base of 300 million thanks largely to new capabilities and features.

For Spielberg, the bottleneck is even simpler: the controller itself. "I think that the artery blocker is the game controller," he said. "Once we can get rid of the controller — a bit like what Don is working on with Kinect — once you get rid of the controller and you’re basically hands-free," he said, it will open up the door to more naturalistic games that will by their very nature become more immersive.

"Once we are hands-free, truly hands-free, and we’re totally immersive — and that’s a whole other technological platform because I believe we need to get away from the proscenium. We’re never going to be totally immersive as long as we’re looking at a square," he said. "Whether it’s a movie screen or a computer screen, we gotta get rid of that. We got to put the player inside the experience, where no matter where you look you’re surrounded by a three-dimensional world. And that’s the future."

It’s hard to disagree with the duo that a game isn’t storytelling in the traditional sense just because it has a linear sequence of events. Once gamers have agency, they’ll change any intended path — and that’s the fun of gaming in the first place. What their arguments beg for is a new definition for the kind of projects we’re seeing today: experiences defined by differing emotional journeys that color how a player interprets a set series of plot elements. Titles like Mass Effect have blazed trails in this regard, and we’ve seen it most recently in Telltale’s The Walking Dead. In the latter game, the first scene and the ending are basically the same. What’s different is the path the player takes between those two points — differing paths that can create varying experiences with radically different emotional implications.

The Walking Dead in particular was exceptional at solving the issue of Spielberg's empathic gap, thanks largely to the use of the 9-year-old sidekick character Clementine; when I played the game, I debated my own moral choices because I didn’t want to set the wrong example for her. We’ve seen this kind of mechanism in games before (Deus Ex is just one notable example) but Telltale’s success in particular suggests we’re closer to that empathy threshold than either Lucas or Spielberg thinks. With this year’s E3 announcements full of titles that hope to combine gaming with traditional narrative forms, it’s clear that developers are trying — and over the next few years we may see an explosion of a new type of character-based narrative hybrid, or come to the conclusion once again that this particular goal is still just out of reach.

EXCLUSIVE: Steven Spielberg has taken American Sniper out of his crosshairs, after declaring in May that he would next helm the film about decorated Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, with Bradley Cooper playing the marksman. DreamWorks has joined Warner Bros in a co-production when Spielberg said he would direct the script by Jason Hall. Spielberg has been looking for his followup to Lincoln, and this becomes the second project that he stepped out of. The one before was an adaptation of Robopocalypse, the Daniel H Wilson science fiction novel that was adapted by Drew Goddard.

Spielberg and DreamWorks are pulling out completely, which is actually gracious. Some director-driven companies get involved with a director attachment, and when the director steps out, the company remains on, and it is an extra expense. Warner Bros is free to secure another filmmaker to keep this project together. Spielberg couldn’t square his vision of this movie with the budget. He’s still got a lot of projects percolating, but hasn’t decided what he’ll direct next.

Spielberg, who took 11 years to get Lincoln the way he wanted it before he committed, has been known to get close to projects only to step out for one reason or another. That included Harvey, the adaptation of the Mary Chase Pulitzer Prize-winning play that was to be a co-production with Fox. That one proved difficult to cast, after Tom Hanks said he didn’t want to play a role originated by James Stewart, the actor he’s so often compared to. That isn’t the case with American Sniper, which has Cooper not only starring but producing. He’s arguably the hottest young actor in town, coming off an Oscar nom for Silver Linings Playbook and next starring in David O Russell’s American Hustle.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

Though he’s still mulling what his next directing gig will be, Steven Spielberg has added another project to his development slate: religious drama “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,” written by “Lincoln” and “Munich” scribe Tony Kushner. Spielberg plans to produce and may direct the drama, which would be a co-production between DreamWorks and the Weinstein Co.

The script is based on David Kertzer’s nonfiction book about the true-life story of an Italian Jew who became the center of an international controversy in 1858 when he was removed from his parents at the age of 7 by authorities of the Papal States and raised as a Catholic. He went on to become a priest in the Augustinian order.

Spielberg and Kushner previously teamed on historical dramas “Munich” and “Lincoln,” both of which landed best picture nominations. Spielberg is said to be very anxious to get back behind the camera, having not directed a movie since 2012′s “Lincoln,” which won Daniel Day-Lewis a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of the 16th president of the United States.

Kushner is in the early stages of writing “Edgardo Mortara,” which sources have made clear won’t be the next project Spielberg directs. He is currently deciding between “Robopocalypse,” for which a rewrite has now been completed after the project was put on hold, and historical drama “Montezuma,” which Steve Zaillian is currently writing and is thus likely not far enough along to be next up for Spielberg.

Some people close to Spielberg insist that he has not committed to his next directing gig, though others say “Robopocalypse” is the frontrunner. Of all his current projects, sources say “Robopocalypse” is the furthest along, with one person noting that the budget is close to being finalized.

Chris Hemsworth is attached to star, and though he is busy shooting “Avengers: The Age of Ultron,” those close to the Aussie thesp say he is still very much interested in finding a way to fit the robot pic into his schedule.

Another factor motivating Spielberg to direct “Robopocalypse” is that it’s a co-production between DreamWorks and Fox. Spielberg’s DreamWorks partner Stacey Snider has let the director know that she plans to leave DreamWorks when her contract expires in late November. She is expected to land her next job at Fox.

Steven Spielberg to Direct Roald Dahl Adaptation 'BFG' (Exclusive)DreamWorks acquired rights to the popular children's book in 2011.Source: THR

Steven Spielberg is attached to direct the adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book The BFG for DreamWorks.

The live-action film will be based on the fantastical tale of a Big Friendly Giant who befriends a young orphan girl. Dahl's book, illustrated by Quentin Blake, was first published in 1982.

DreamWorks acquired the book in 2011 with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall to produce. Sources say Marshall is still attached to the project. Melissa Mathison, who wrote E.T., was attached to write the script. Various directors have been attached to the project over the years, including John Madden and Chris Columbus.

There has been one other adaptation of the popular children's book: for a 1989 animated made-for-TV movie in the U.K.

Spielberg, who dropped out of American Sniper last year, has not directed a movie since 2012's Lincoln, and instead of narrowing his options, he seems to be expanding them, adding his name to several projects in the past month, including an adaptation of the David Kertzer novel The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara and an untitled Cold War project written by Matt Charman that has Tom Hanks attached.

This trio of new attachments joins a list of Spielberg contenders that also includes Robopocalypse, a sci-fi tentpole set up at Fox, and Montezuma, which tackles the drama between Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and the famous Aztec ruler.

A source with knowledge of the situation said the flurry of announcements counters "the perception that [Spielberg] is out of business with [DreamWorks CEO] Stacey Snider going to Fox and Dreamworks as we know it going away." Snider has been considered likely to take a high-level creative position at the Fox film studio, sparking speculation about the future of DreamWorks.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

DreamWorks’ Cold War project — with Steven Spielberg directing and Tom Hanks starring — is heating up with Joel and Ethan Coen on board to write the script.

Marc Platt will produce with Spielberg. The Coen Brothers, who won screenwriting Oscars for “Fargo” and “No Country for Old Men,” are revising Matt Charman’s script.

The untitled project is based on the true story of James Donovan, who Hanks will portray. Donovan was the American attorney enlisted by the CIA during the Cold War to surreptitiously negotiate the 1962 release of Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 spy plane pilot who was shot down over Russia two years earlier.

Variety reported that Hanks had come on board the project in mid-April.

Spielberg is also considering directing the DreamWorks-Fox co-production “Robopocalypse” and the historical drama “Montezuma,” which Steve Zaillian is penning. Additionally, he’s committed to directing an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “The BFG” for DreamWorks,

Hanks and Spielberg have worked together on three films: “Saving Private Ryan,” “Catch Me if You Can” and “The Terminal.”

The Coen Brothers directed “Inside Llewyn Davis” from their own script and wrote the script for Angelina Jolie’s World War II drama “Unbroken.”

DreamWorks declined to comment.

The Coen Brothers are repped by UTA.

News of the Coen Brothers attachment was first reported by THR.com.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

DreamWorks has set three-time Tony Award winner and two-time Olivier Award winner Mark Rylance to play the title role in The BFG. Steven Spielberg will direct the adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic kid novel. Published in 1982, BFG concerns a young girl, the Queen of England and a benevolent giant known as the BFG. The three set out on an adventure to capture the evil, man-eating giants who have been invading the human world.

The film gets underway early next year and Disney releases it July 1, 2016 in the U.S. DreamWorks’ financier Reliance will release in India and Mister Smith is handling distribution in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

“As I witnessed on stage, Mark Rylance is a transformational actor,” Spielberg said in a statement. “I am excited and thrilled that Mark will be making this journey with us to Giant Country. Everything about his career so far is about making the courageous choice and I’m honored he has chosen The BFG as his next big screen performance.”

The Dahl estate also gives Rylance a thumbs up. Said the author’s grandson Luke Kelly, who is Managing Director of the Roald Dahl Literary Estate: “We are ecstatic at this choice. Mark is incredibly talented, one of the great British actors working today. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Mark perform, and the thought of watching him transform into ‘the only nice and jumbly Giant in Giant Country’ is, as The BFG himself might say, absolutely phizz-whizzing.”

Rylance is currently working with Steven Spielberg on the untitled Cold War thriller he’s directing with Tom Hanks in the starring role. Rylance’s other upcoming projects include The Gunman, Days And Nights, and the BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall. Rylance won his Tonys for Boeing Boeing, Jerusalem and Twelfth Night and the two Olivier Awards were for Much Ado About Nothing and Jerusalem. His deal was made by Hamilton Hodell and Peikoff Mahan Law Office.

DreamWorks acquired the long gestating book in 2010 and E.T. scribe Melissa Mathison adapted it. Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Sam Mercer are producing. Kathleen Kennedy, a catalyst in getting this up and running, will exec produce with John Madden and Michael Siegel. Kristie Macosko Krieger and Adam Somner are co-producers.

Steven Spielberg is attached to helm an adaptation of Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One." Zak Penn ("X-Men: Last Stand," "The Avengers") is tackling the script, and the project is set up at Warner Bros., but the big issue will be clearing the rights for this story which heavily references 1980s video games (I guess Adam Sandler's "Pixels" is kicking the floodgates open on that). Here's the book synopsis:

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

The last time Spielberg was ready to go sci-fi, it was with "Robopocalypse" which he was supposed to direct after "Lincoln," but it collapsed.